


Hunger

by Turtbutt



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Corruption, M/M, Murder, Organized Crime, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-23 14:37:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Turtbutt/pseuds/Turtbutt
Summary: On the mud laid a huge, chubby man, a mindless shine in his dead eyes, his wide mouth filled with blood, his throat open side to side with medical precision. He was wearing a blue checked shirt, but the upper buttons had been ripped. On his chest, a message written with a vicious knife.‘Here’s your serial’





	1. Carnaria

**Author's Note:**

> Detective AU in which "the Titan" turns out to be a serial killer... 
> 
> I'm pretty much making this up as I go along, so I might have to add some more warnings, tags, etc. as the story progresses. 
> 
> My first language isn't English so expect to find """"some"""" mistakes, as I have no one to beta this... becuse I'm too embarrassed to show anyone I know XD. Anyway, I think the idea might work and I hope you enjoy reading it!

 

It was the third body in the last twenty-four hours. As he looked at those empty eyes, the slack mouth, the skin tainted with wasted blood, he realized they were fighting something bigger than what they had thought at first. It was a lot of work for a lone wolf.

The Titan, as the pressed liked to call the serial, had added to their list their thirty-seventh victim, the murderer’s personal brand evident in the lack of limbs. Every single body had presented different mutilations, but there was no room for mistake. No traces, no staging, no linking between the victims, nonexistence of remorse nor rituals, no meaning nor point.

The panic had spread on Sina like a psychotic disease. The police had kept it quiet for a long time, when the murders had occurred randomly in different spots at Shingashina, Nedlay, Karaness and Krolva and the protagonists had been outlaws, homeless people, prostitutes, anonymous, unimportant third class citizens. Now that the epidemy had reached the inner city, there was no way of controlling it.

A press conference had been held barely a week ago. The Military Police had deeply encouraged people to avoid going out at night if not necessary, stay close to crowds, create warning systems with family and friends in case of emergency and report to their recently created Special Investigating Squad at the slightest sign of suspicious activity. Every single member of the Garrison Police had to elongate their shifts, as the patrolling became more intense.

As for the Survey Police… well, Erwin couldn’t remember the last time he had gone home.

‘By any chance, has anybody found this girl’s ID?’ he asked, to no one in particular.

He was answered with a few scattered, unenthusiastic ‘no, boss’. Erwin searched for Mike. He had been surveying the area for the Holy Grail of detectives: that evidence piece that would solve the case at a stroke. If anyone was to find it, that was Mike and his special sense of smell for crime scenes. They shared a desperate glance, the bags under their red eyes a sign of comradery and duty.

Erwin sighed and sliding on the latex gloves, he finally crouched down by the girl’s body. She was only missing a leg, more than enough to bleed to death in a matter of minutes. He hated to think about the bright side of that situation, but being optimistic, the fact that she still had her two arms and her head gave them a better chance to find genetic material.

‘Were you going to start without me? How rude!’

Erwin turned around to see Hange approaching, her heavy doctor case making her loose her balance on the muddy bank.

‘I wouldn’t dream of it’ Erwin said, all sense of humor draught out of his voice ‘I was just taking a look at her, see if I can figure out who she might be’

Hange seemed as exhausted as the rest of them, her permanent smile worn down by the puffiness of her face after a quick, nightmare filled nap at the morgue, her hair dirtier and messier than usual, the clothes the same ones that she had worn for the last three days.

‘This is getting out of hand’ she muttered secretively to Erwin, her joyous self gone for a second ‘Look what we have here! A lovely, fat specimen of _Sarcophaga carnaria.’_

Using her tweezers, Hange picked with impressive skill one of the flies roaming the body and carefully drop it in a sample tube.

 ‘How long since the time of death?’ Erwin asked, trying to lift the girl’s eyelids.

‘Between twelve to fifteen hours, giving by the rigor mortis.’

‘She hasn’t been killed here either. There’s barely any blood’ Erwin stated.

Like in the rest of the cases, the victim had been translocated from the place of murder to some other random location. In that occasion, the body had been slightly hidden, but a few times they had found bodies in the middle of roads, thrown from moving vehicles.

 ‘I’ll try to search for fibers and particles…’ Hange said, gathering samples from the soil and the surrounding plants ‘Although it feels useless at this point. We never find anything on them.’

Erwin ignored the fatalism and kept voicing his thoughts: ‘The lividity matches her position, so… she must have been here… how long?’

Hange shrugged. ‘She could have been here from minute one as far as we know. The only thing we can be certain is that she was moved in the first six hours after she died’

Erwin stood up and looked around the area. There was a road by the bank of the river, a couple of detached houses at the other side of the road and a little bridge only a hundred meters away. Across the river, a promenade and a long row of buildings. It was a lively and safe area, so it wasn’t hard to see people roaming around at any time of the day and even the night. However, the crime scene had only been discovered an hour ago by an early runner and her dog.    

‘Ok, so she’s been here at least six hours. The latest she could have been dropped here would be two A.M. See those at the other side of the river? Those are late bars. How could absolutely no one have seen anything?’

‘Maybe someone did, but they didn’t think it was anything serious. Aren’t the Garrison boys asking the neighbors?’

‘Hange, they would have seen someone leaving a dead body at the bank, there’s no way you can see that as something not serious…’

Suddenly, Mike’s voice disrupted the quiet murmuring of the police work.

‘Erwin! I think you should take a look at that, buddy…’ he suggested, pointing somewhere in front of him, in the river.

Erwin searched carefully, his eyes tired and old for easily targeting anything farther than an arm’s length. Hange walked up to him and put her glasses in front of his eyes to stop him from having a momentary midlife crisis. After the first shock and a genuine second of worry for Hange’s sight, Erwin could finally see it.

Floating like a loose buoy, a blue-checked, big belly was being taken away by the current.

‘Someone get me that body!’ Erwin roared to the top of his lungs, and almost like an automatic response, a couple of the most fit investigators run to the river, leaving behind phones, wallets and shoes.

Summer season was usually dry, so the river could be easily walked across with a strong set of legs and determination, and Erwin had enough of the last to spare for all his subordinates.

After a few bad slips and some minor struggle, Nanaba, Gelgar and Moses, managed to drag back to the ground the floating man. Erwin congratulate them with a few pats in their backs and the promise of a new expresso machine for their office so they could warm up after their quick dip.

On the mud laid a huge, chubby man, a mindless shine in his dead eyes, his wide mouth filled with blood, his throat open side to side with medical precision. He was wearing a blue checked shirt, but the upper buttons had been ripped. On his chest, a message written with a vicious knife.

‘Here’s your serial’

.              .              .

 

He had waited long and patiently. Night after night, he sat in the shadows of an alley and checked every passing vehicle, looking for only one. One specific, red, old van with worn tires and a smiley sticker in the left back door. And that Wednesday night, there it was, rolling up the street slowly while the driver assessed the girls. She had to be young but not new to the profession, preferably not too tall and certainly not build up. The predator in the van would look for weak arms and short legs, smug attitudes and dilatated pupils.

The van came to a stop in front of Kathleen. The usual business: she came close to it, she set a price, she smiled, pleased, and jumped in. As soon as the door closed, Levi was already on his motorbike and ready to follow.

He rode after that van for nearly an hour, until he started suspecting that the driver had noticed him. Their speed had almost doubled since the beginning of the chase and the turns had become sharp, sudden, meant to lose him. When the van ignored a red light, Levi knew. He didn’t care, he was going to kill that man with his own hands.

But the dreaded call of the sirens caught up to him and he saw the van disappear in a corner with rage-blind eyes as he came to a forced stop. Levi could have risked to keep following the van and hopefully led the police to the killer, but he was in the top ten of the law enforcement’s black list. They probably would shoot him before he could become a hero.  

He expected Garrison, but the Military Police badge greeted him instead, so he gracefully accepted the fine and happily bribed their forgiveness. It barely took five minutes, but the van was gone.

‘C’mon, c’mon’ Levi pleaded into his facemask, riding around isolated places in hopes he could find them.

There was an abandoned hydroelectric plant at the edge of Utopia district. It was at the foot of a ravine, surrounded by woods and the entrance had been long covered by bushes. It could have been unnoticed if not for the recent tire tracks Levi spotted on the mud at one side of the road.

Just when dawn threatened with the discovering of another victim, there it was. The van, parked a few meters from the open gate.

Levi hoped off the bike and draw his knife. No need to make a bigger fuss with gunshots. He could already hear Kathleen’s whimpers and sobs echoing in the rocks, over the noise of the waterfall nearby. Stealthy, cold-blooded, Levi walked around the building until the scene in front of him stopped him in his tracks.

Under the morning’s first light, there he was. Isabel and Farlan’s murder, sinking his big teeth in the torn muscles of a thigh, blood running everywhere on his hands and face. Kathleen trembled violently, paralyzed by the terror, the fight already lost in her, waiting for the sick monster to finish her off torturously. Undisturbed by Levi’s presence, he kept eating, empty gaze fixed somewhere in the woods. Levi’s shock lasted barely ten seconds. Five strides, an elegant swipe of his wrist and the men fell on top of his victim, his own blood pooling on the concrete.

After taking care of a still petrified Kathleen, Levi bared the man’s chest and carved on his skin a message for whoever cared. The river was shallow that time of the year, someone was bound to find him.

Nobody had listened when he ran to the police after Isabel and Farlan were found dead. ‘Maybe they’ll listen now’ Levi whispered as he kicked the body down to the river.   

  

 


	2. Riverbank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Titan had no personality. They hunted, they ripped flesh and then they discarded, all of it without leaving any signs of their existence.
> 
> Now, how could you possibly tell the public opinion that the serial killer the police force was looking for couldn’t be trapped until a mistake was made?

Erwin and Hange stared at the incognita in front of them. The massive corpse of the supposed serial killer lay on the tray, cleaned out of any evidence his body could hold, except for the message a faceless avenger had left on his chest.

‘Here’s your serial’ Erwin read out loud.

They both stayed quiet then, thinking what couldn’t be seriously said. Even though Erwin suspected of the existence of two or maybe more culprits to the crime wave, he still wasn’t going to give into the idea of one of them being served to the Survey Police as the Christmas turkey.

‘Well, this man has been obviously murdered, so it doesn’t really help if he was the Titan or not, because we’ve got ourselves another psycho off the leash’

‘Hmm’ Erwin grunted, not really listening.

Whoever slayed that man’s throat deserved a little bit more of sympathy, in Erwin’s opinion. He had ordered the analysts to sample he blood on the dead man’s teeth. If it wasn’t his, there was a great chance that he might be the Titan. They only had to try and match it with any of the victim’s blood. However…

‘How would the author of this be sure that this was the Titan?’ he asked.

‘Are you thinking our hero caught him red-handed?’

‘Possibly…’

‘So you _are_ really thinking this man could be the Titan’

Erwin just gave Hange a meaningful look, but said nothing.

‘Erwin, if you don’t share your theories, I can’t help’ Hange said, the annoyance clear in her tone.

Being a genius, she didn’t take well when Erwin left her out of his head, which was understandable. He trusted blindly in her abilities and had been witness of her potential in countless occasions, but he still needed that little plot of privacy in his mind.  He’d rather be sure of a concept’s plausibility than to put on risk an investigation.

‘Even if he is, I don’t think this problem’s been solved, Hange’ he murmured. ‘We can only wait’

The idea downed on Hange. Still, she said nothing, taking the hint on Erwin’s quiet mood. They knew exactly what ‘waiting’ meant. Sometimes they had no other choice but to expect a better chance to gather evidence or witnesses with a new victim. Sacrifices had to be done to do an exhaustive investigation work that couldn’t be refuted by any judge, otherwise Military Police could take over the case, with the consequences it brought.   

Erwin sighed and picked up the previous thread. ‘If it’s true that Titan’s murdered caught him red-handed, we could have another victim somewhere. Maybe we should send the Garrison to search along the river, they might be able to find something. It’s far-fetched but right now is the best thing we have, at least while we wait for the results on the blood samples.’

Suddenly, the door slammed open and Nile Dok came in with two of the Military Police muscles, shouting for explanations and wearing no medical gear whatsoever.

‘What the fuck! What… the…. FUCK!’ he screeched into Erwin’s face, poking the corpse’s chest.

‘Yeah…’ Hange agreed.

The forensic, who had been peacefully washing instrumental at the other side of the room, turned around to stare at Dok, outraged by his lack of respect for his workplace. Erwin gave him an apologizing look and then addressed the problem at hand.

 ‘Yes, we’re all confused, Nile.’

Nile bit is bottom lip, his scruffy goatee standing up in every direction, as he shook with utter rage.

‘You should have caught this piece of shit, not some fucking nut job!’ he declared.

‘Don’t get ahead of yourself, Dok, we don’t even know if this is the Titan yet’ said Hange, trying to stand between Erwin and Nile in a protective gesture that was very much appreciated by her coworker.

‘You have no idea what this means, do you?’ Nile asked, pointing at them with an accusatory finger ‘This means that someone out there was able to do the work that you didn’t manage to do in months. Months! This, you freaks, could cost you your positions. Haven’t you thought of that?’

‘Hey, wait a minute now…’ Hange started.

Erwin laid a firm hand on her shoulder and nudge her away, excusing himself. He started walking away and signaled Nile to follow him outside the morgue and after getting rid of the forensic gear, he offered Nile a coffee across the road.

They sat at a small table in the corner of the coffee shop, while Nile’s bodyguards lurked by the bar. The place was crowded with loud students from Rose’s college, so Erwin was pretty sure they wouldn’t be eavesdropped if only Nile could stop himself from yelling too much.

The man in front of Erwin was a nervous wreck. He had always been an idiot; ever since they met each other as recruits, Erwin didn’t have a good image of Nile. How he had managed to crawl all the way up to the higher ranks of the Military Police he had no idea, although they weren’t famous for their smarts. However, Erwin could understand the kind of pressure he had to deal with. Not only he was one of the men responsible for the actions of all three of the regiments, but he also was the one in charge to deal with the press and explain to them what on earth Garrison and Survey were doing if not putting the culprit of the murders behind bars.

This was a case without any precedents. No other serial killer had targeted that city so obsessively. The worst name you could hear on the streets had always been who the tabloids used to call, back in the sixties, ‘The tooth fairy’ and most people were sure he was an inoffensive urban legend.

But even the most sordid of cases that had hit Sina wasn’t comparable to the Titan’s. Sooner or later, psychopaths unveiled themselves with rituals, which always led to a very specific kind of person, a unique pattern of behaviors, obsessions, scars and preferences that ended up pointing at a single individual like no other. The Titan had no personality. They hunted, they ripped flesh and then they discarded, all of it without leaving any signs of their existence.

Now, how could you possibly tell the public opinion that the serial killer the police force was looking for couldn’t be trapped until a mistake was made? That was the challenge Nile had to fight every single day for the last three months and Erwin pitied him.

To be fair, Erwin wasn’t exempt from responsibilities to other parties that had nothing to do with his actual work. The whole weight of the Survey Police fell on his shoulders and no one’s but his own name was the one that the newspapers mentioned when talking about the investigation and no one’s but his own name was the one to be called to the Police Head Committee meetings. Actually, he was sure he was going to to face them soon enough after Nile’s visit. Erwin wasn’t exempt, but his priorities laid with the case. Press and high-ups were second on his list as they should be on Nile’s.

‘Nile, there’s no need to panic.’ Erwin started, sipping on his coffee ‘If this story reveals, just let it happen. We can use it to our advantage…’

‘How? Whether that man is the true Titan or not, shit is going to hit the fan!’ Nile concluded, as he opened sugar bag after sugar bag and poured them into his coffee ‘If he is the Titan, a civilian has outsmarted the police and we’re fucked. If he isn’t, then we could be talking about some freak that is going around killing people until they find the Titan and I’m sure a good bunch of citizens would be more than happy to do the same. We have enough criminals with the Underground as it is.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll find out who is that men at the morgue. I’ll deal with what Sina needs to know about this whole business after we know, I promise.’

Nile nodded, his ire nearly soothed. ‘At least you have an identification on that girl you found by the river, right?’

‘Yes, her family is coming over to confirm its her.’

‘Where is she from?’

‘Outskirts of Karaness. Her father own one of the late bars at the other side and she worked in there as a waitress’

‘Oh, it’s fine so. No need to make a big deal out of it.’

Erwin glared at Dok, the spoon coming to a sudden stop in his hand. He understood. A senator’s second-grader son had disappeared when he had been playing in a playground down in Stohess Distric. He hadn’t been found yet, he could have been abducted by the Titan and the media had little space on their agendas for other news. They definitely didn’t have seconds to spare for a waitress from Karaness. There would be a little corner reserved for the newest Titan victim on the second page of police reports in the newspaper and that was it. If the Titan’s hunts were limited to Maria as they had been at first, nobody would be talking about it. Out of the thirty-seven murders, only a dozen had gotten enough attention. Erwin did understand, he was part of that downtown Sina society as well, he had seen how everyone turned their backs to anything beyond Rose’s territory, too self-absorbed in their own mundane problems, but the understanding didn’t stop his blood from boiling.

‘I want to send a squad from the Garrison to search the river surroundings all the way up to the edge of Maria.’ Informed Erwin, trying hard to keep the resentment out of his words.

‘What for?’

‘We’re considering the possibility of the Titan being caught red-handed but his murderer. We could find another victim by the riverbanks, since his body was thrown down the river.’

Nile shook his head as he dug his fork into his cheesecake.  ‘Impossible. All Garrison’s troops are busy with the search of the senator’s kid. You have no permission to use the Garrison for your stupid theories.’

Erwin rolled his eyes. As if he needed that permission. ‘Fine’ he replied, their conversation coming to an abrupt end and silence reigning as their finished their snacks.

As soon as Nile left the table, ignoring the bill for somebody else to pay for it, Erwin fetched his phone out of his blazer pocket and search for Shadis’ number in his contact list. Keith had decided to spend his last years of service as an instructor in the Police Academy and apparently, there was not a single day he didn’t regret the decision. He held Erwin in high regard, being his superior for long years before he left the Survey Police, and he constantly complained about the new recruits not doing enough work, so Erwin could always count on a little help from the young aspirants to detectives and investigators.

‘Hi, Shadis, this is Erwin. How are the kids?’

‘Shouting and whining and scratching their balls.’ Shadis answered ‘Will I send some idiots to you?’

‘I need you to put a few of them on an endurance run by Maria river, from Karaness to the north edge of the city. Could you do that for me?’

‘They’re late for it already’ Keith confirmed as he finished the call.

 .              .              .             

The sandy, soft soil of the riverbank had slowly turned into big, smooth rocks as they were approaching Utopia district. Eren had been cursing under his breath when his feet sank into the wet sand, but now his ankles were screaming with every pull and twist.

The only reason for his determination jogged a few meters ahead from the group, her pace as steady and fresh as it had been two hours ago, when they had started their expedition.

‘Bloody Mikasa… How can she run on this… SHIT!’ he murmured, shouting the last word, its echo reverberating on the walls of the ravine, and he felt the tears gathering at the corner of his eyes. He would never be fit for Survey Police…

‘Jesus, Yaeger, you’re pathetic.’ Horse-face Jean said as he walked ahead of him.

Eren barely had any stamina left to keep walking, but he did have enough testosterone to reach for Jean’s collar and lift his fist in threat. Like in every single attempt of a fight, somebody interrupted. Armin walked through the small space between the taller boys, pushing them apart, and asked: ‘Aren’t you tired of this show?’

Connie and Sasha walked by with disappointed looks and shaking heads, their mouths filled up with salt and vinegar chips. How did they even manage to stop along the way and get those?

The bank of the river became narrower and narrower as they advanced, until they reached the old hydroelectric plant. Mikasa came to a stop in front of the ruins of the stairs that led to the terrace where the building stood and turned around to seek for advice.

‘I think we should follow the road from now one’ Armin said before anyone could ask, looking at the map on his GPS ‘It doesn’t seem like the riverbank is passable from now on, even by walk’

‘Let’s climb up these stairs, so’ Reiner said as he dared to be the one to check if they were safe enough.

Once he was at the top, he helped everyone else climb it.

‘Look at that van, guys! Fucking creepy…’ Ymir pointed out as soon as she was up, approaching the vehicle.

‘Is that blood?’ Marco asked then, the color draining out his face.

The all walked towards the building and, effectively, there was a worrying pool of blood on the concrete, a few other red splatters a few centimeters away, a long trail to the edge of the terrace and perfectly drawn footprints that disappeared near the entrance of the facility.

‘What do we do?’ Eren asked, panicking already.

‘We have to call the Survey Police straight away…’ Armin answered, voice trembling.

Jean shook his head and contradicted: ‘They said on TV that in case of suspicion we should call the Military Police instead ‘

‘Well, we have to call somebody!’ Krista exclaimed.

‘Berthold, you have the coms, right? Call the Survey’ Reiner finally ordered. ‘They’ll do a better job with this’

Armin told everyone to stay away from the blood, the footprints and the van and try not to contaminate the crime scene.

 ‘What now?’ Eren asked when they were all leaning on the fence, away from any possible piece of evidence.

‘Now we wait until the Survey Police shows up’ answered Armin.

Sasha sighed and crouched down, covering her face with her hands in desperation. Krista hurried to comfort her, caressing her back softly: ‘Don’t worry, Sasha, we’re all scared…’

‘We’re going to miss dinner…’ Sasha whined. 

 


	3. All-points bulletin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It did occur to Levi that somewhere in that city there might have been a policeman with some actual work ethics and might have been looking for him in that exact moment, but he wasn’t too bothered.

Levi dragged himself up to the seventh floor of his building. When happiness was a landing away, he saw Kenny standing by his door. He sighed, defeated. He desperately needed a shower and it was obvious that the old man was going to get in his way… well, he already was in his way.

‘What do you want?’ he snapped.

‘Where the fuck have you been, little shit?’

‘Had a business to deal with’ Levi answered, brushing past Kenny while he searched for the keys in his worn-down jacket.

‘Well, excuse me, your majesty’ Kenny sneered. Levi felt the sharp tip of a knife pressing against the small of his back as he fought the stubborn, old lock. He would feel threatened, but that trick was old. ‘Turns out that _I_ am the one who decides what business you have to deal with. You work for me.’

Levi opened the door, unaffected, and before closing it on Kenny’s face, he simply replied: ‘Nah, artists don’t work for their managers.’

The silence welcomed him. He hanged his jacket by the door and paid attention to the noises on the landing. Kenny’s footsteps soon disappeared downstairs and Levi let out a relieved breath. The man wasn’t precisely a source of fear for him, but he could be quite insistent.

God, that flat was silent…

A broken sob escaped his mouth. Levi had lost the count of the times he had warned Isabel to stay quiet while she was in the sanctuary of his house or the times he had kicked Farlan out when his visits prolonged beyond his solitaire preferences. No one was going to invade his privacy again, no one was going to disturb his sleep, no one was going to soil his kitchen. The sudden awareness hit his chest, nearly winding him.

Levi hadn’t had the chance to mourn them yet. The thirst for revenge had been so strong that right after their austere funeral, he had started hunting down the infamous Titan. The name hadn’t been official until the first journalist wrote a full report on their murder record, but at the outskirts of Maria, their deeds were well-known. There were rumors of the Titan being a sick member of the Underground, spred mainly by the Military Police. Levi had seen and committed murder before, some of them twisted, sadist and extremely inhuman. Nothing like the Titan’s crimes, though. Underground affiliates didn’t work that way. Every time Levi had killed, he had a purpose, a motive, not always of his own, money being his sole incentive most of the time; the lives of those mutilated people had been wasted for no reason at all and that Titan was some hungry killer.

The Titan _had been_ a hungry killer. Levi had made sure that the parasite was taken care of. It didn’t matter that all the regiments in police would pat each other’s backs and pin medals to the so-called heroes’ uniforms, as long as the monster was gone, he was happy.  It did occur to Levi that somewhere in that city there might have been a policeman with some actual work ethics and might have been looking for him in that exact moment, but he wasn’t too bothered.

Levi let all the weight on his body push him down on the couch. He turned on the TV to avoid the constant reminder that he was, in fact, alone in that world and tried listening in the news if there were any new leads on the Titan’s case. He toed off his heavy boots.

‘Ugh… Fucking blood. Disgusting’ he said, as he noticed the red pieces of crust scattered on the wooden boards.

The intense color brought him back to that morning, to that grotesque scene. Kathleen surely would recover of her wounds, but the trauma? Levi wasn’t sure. There had been no reaction to her rescue, she hadn’t said a word during the ride, the look on her face remined the same as he fled away. Whatever the Titan had done to her, apart from trying to eat her alive, it seemed like there was no person left in that shell at all.

Levi had dropped Kathleen outside the emergency room of the nearest hospital with sufficient money, not wanting to answer to any nosey doctor’s interrogation. Since she didn’t really know him and, even if she did, she probably wouldn’t have recognized him with his facemask, Levi didn’t have to worry about her giving his name to the police. If she ever brought herself to talk again, she could tell her survivor story. If not, it would simply remain a mystery to society.

He carefully grabbed the boots by their laces and threw them out to his tiny balcony, where everything dirty remained until it was thoroughly cleaned. He fetched the broom and started sweeping the floor. Once the sitting room was done, he kept going through all the house, and when he was finished with the broom, he mopped. And after, he decided to do the bathroom.

Dizzy by the vapors of bleach and other cleaning products, Levi spent long hours on the same spot, a single tile in the shower. There was no satisfaction of cleaning filth out of walls, floors and surfaces. There was no filth in a house that only he habited. Levi shuddered with the threat of crying, so he resumed the vigorous scrubbing. Maybe if he resolved to scrub the pattern out of the shower tiles and dedicated enough time and effort, just maybe, he could do it. Maybe he could also erase the horrifying images of Farlan and Isabel covered in their own blood, their final expressions carved forever in their faces, an incongruous mass of limbs and guts the only thing left of them, abandoned by the train rails.

Levi’s forehead met the cold tiles, his bottom lip trembling uncontrollably. The first tear ran down his cheek and he realized he had lost the fight to his own emotions. He started sobbing quietly, finding support on the wall. When hate and rage were gone, the only thing left for him was grief. He took off his cleaning gloves and he scratched his arms savagely, trying to find a scape for all that pain the only way he knew. He hadn’t been that hurt in such a long time, his petty self-harm wasn’t going to hide how his heart and chest actually ached, leaving him breathless.

Giving up on the cleaning, he simply turned the shower faucet to the hottest position and let the scorching water fall on him. As the heat slowly colored his skin in a dangerous shade of pink, Levi slid down the wall to the floor and curled up in the corner.

‘It’ll be gone…’ Levi reassured himself ‘It’ll be gone soon…’

 

.              .              .            

  

Erwin arrived at the given coordinates in record time. Everybody had left to attend the call immediately, but he had been stuck in Zackley’s office to report on the morning’s incident at the crime scene, so he had to get on with it patiently and then pull off the siren stunt to get in Utopia before the fun was over.  

A Garrison officer signaled him to slow down when he was approaching the hydroelectric plant. He stepped out of the car and thanked the officer. The first thing he noticed was the tire prints on the mud by the entrance… Unmarked. Erwin cursed but then he saw the red van and assumed they wouldn’t need to search for that vehicle after all.

The investigators gathered by the van and in a small area next the rundown building, but first, Erwin decided to check on Shadis’ kids.

They all had their declarations taken and they had done a great job already, so Erwin dismissed them, not without giving them a motivational speech, since some of them wanted to work for the Survey Police in the future. Once they joined the force they would see for themselves what a shitty job that really was, if Erwin’s sunken face, wrinkled suit and bad smell wasn’t enough to scare them off, but at that age it was important to have dreams.

Erwin started to walk over the main point of attention but a red spot at his feet stopped his advance.

A bloody footprint of a military boot, small size. He followed the trail until it came to an end near an almost indiscernible skid mark. And that one was left unmarked with no reasonable excuse. Erwin put his hands on his hips like he was scolding a bunch of scholars:

‘Guys, I know that we are all tired, but Jesus Christ, this is a skid mark. Has anyone seen it? A fucking motorbike was here at the same time as the murder, this is probably our best piece of evidence so far!’

Somebody ran up to Erwin’s position and left a little yellow tag on the concrete. He spat a sarcastic ‘thank you’ and decided to take a look at the van. Hange was sampling several stains inside the van’s load compartment.

‘What do we have here?’ Erwin asked.

‘Blood. Loads of it. Seems like the Titan wasn’t too bothered to clean it… which is great for us.’

Hanged jumped out of the vehicle and sealed the sample tubes into a plastic bag, which she passed to Moblit so he could catalog it. She took off her mask and a manic grin grew on her face: ‘This could be it, Erwin!’

‘There’s no documents nor personal belongings inside the cabin’ Mike clarified as he closed the driver’s seat door and before Erwin could inquire, he added ‘And the plaque is fake. I just checked with the Garrison.’

Erwin grunted. ‘Not so lucky after all… Call me if you find anything else.’

The group standing in a circle by the building soon stepped away to let Erwin have a better view. He was expecting another corpse but instead there was only blood. He turned to Gunter: ‘No victim?’

‘No, sir, we have a few officers searching the area but in the last twenty minutes there hasn’t been any notice of a body.’

Erwin hummed and studied the stains closely. The biggest, dark and round blotch could easily belong to the presumed Titan. The blood spread in an irregular line towards the edge and Erwin found safe to assume that the man floating on the river down in Karaness had his throat slit and his body disposed there. He examined the little drops that had fallen in small groups next to the big lake of blood.

‘Has Hange sampled these?’

‘Yes, sir’

‘Separately?’

‘Uhm… I think so, sir’

Erwin nodded, whispering ‘good, good’. After a minute of silence, he stood up.

‘Somebody try and contact the hospitals and ask if there have been any patients admitted with bite injuries. We could have our first survivor somewhere in Sina.’

 

.              .              .

 

They walked through the hospital doors triumphantly and Erwin thought that he deserved that emergency cigarette he had been saving on his front pocket. He liked to think it was a reminder that he had quit smoking, although he had to replace it too many times in the last months to be proud of being an ex-smoker. Hange hated when he smoked but that night she didn’t nag him as he lighted up the cigarette in his mouth.

They both sat on a near bench and looked at the stars, knowing that he might not even enjoy a couple of sleep hours that night. Who knew when the next call was going to be? He shook his head and tried to focus on that day’s achievements.

Kathleen’s leg wound evolved favorably. She had been tested for blood transmitting diseases and the results should be out in less than two days. Apparently, the doctors had called the Garrison, as she couldn’t articulate a word and nobody had accompanied her into the emergency room, but they were told that the Garrison had better things to attend to in that moment. Erwin marveled at how thick they could be. She had been hospitalized in a severe state of shock, yet she had slowly gone over it by herself through the day. If everything went as predicted, she could be discharged next morning.

Luckily for the Survey Corps, the conversation with Kathleen had been more fructiferous than Erwin had expected. Her description matched the man's at the morgue and she did confirm he had attacked her by trying to devour her. Being a working girl, he had asked for her services and she had got into his van without any suspicion. She couldn’t remember much after, she didn’t know if she had been drugged or the experience had erased the memories off her brain, she just couldn’t tell.

The next thing she did remember, was a man cutting open her aggressor’s neck, holding her bridal-style to his motorbike and leaving her by the emergency room door.

With her declaration, they already knew that they should look for a well-built, short man, possibly wearing black leather jacket and boots, with a classic, small, brown and cream Harley Davidson. Sure, they had no hair color nor features at all, but it wasn’t a common description either. As soon as he got in the station next morning, he was going to set an APB on that man.

Next morning.

The smoke filled his lungs with a poisonous bliss, the taste oddly familiar and the warmth down his larynx woke him up to a night full of possibilities. He could go home and sleep, take a very much needed shower and rest his mind for the busy workday ahead. He could go home and eat a proper meal, tidy up that mess of a house he had, sit down on the couch and watch something like ‘The Kardashians’ or ‘Toddles&Tiaras’.

Instead, he grabbed his phone and typed a simple, very short question and send the message.

‘Any plans for the night?’ Hange suddenly asked.

Erwin arched a brow as she pretended not to have been shamelessly peeking into his phone screen. He put it back into his pocket and Hange chuckled.

‘Erwin, maybe you should actually _sleep_ tonight’

‘Nah, I’m pumped…’ he brushed off, finishing the sentence with an awful cough.

Hange cackled loudly and Erwin joined in the laugh. ‘Don’t worry, boss, this case is sucking everyone’s youth at the Survey's. I’d better take a leave…’

She stretched, the thick muscles on her back revealed through the tank top she had worn for the last few hours after taking off layer after layer during the day.

A beep disturbed the quiet surroundings of the hospital. ‘Ok’ the message read.

‘Will I drop you down at the station?’ Erwin offered.

She yawned a ‘please’ and rubbed her brown eyes under her thick glasses.

Once Erwin had seen Hange to her car and waved her goodbye, he set off. He stopped at a gas station to refill and he bought a six-pack, toothpaste, deodorant and a pack of condoms. He asked the clerk for the toilet keys and tried to groom himself as much as he could. Water, a finger as a toothbrush and ‘Desperation’ by Lynx would have to do that night.

He drove through the city. It was nearly midnight on a weekday and the streets were pleasantly empty. He didn’t want to speed, though, a little bit of anticipation worked well for both parts. He paid notice to the scenery, from the luminous giants that were the skyscrapers of Mitras, going through the luxurious neighborhoods of Ehrmich Distric, passing by the view of the rural charm of Ragako from the highway, and down to the bohemian alleys of Trost.

At the district’s limits, there was a great piece of architecture built in the late twenties, which had aspirated to be the most glamourous hotel in all Sina, back when Trost was the artistic and cultural epicenter of the city. With the years and a few generations of bad administrations, the last owner had decided to transform the hotel into individual flats and sell it to state agents.

The works done inside had been an utter mess, every single flat a different size and distribution, but they had an undeniable charisma to it.

As he climbed up the stairs to the seventh floor -the lift had stopped working in the fifties and had never been fixed- he thought with a smile that it was a very suitable place for someone like his host.

He knocked on the door and he was immediately received by a set of stunning, silver and charcoal eyes.

‘It took you long enough…’

‘Hi, Levi.’


End file.
